Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons, more team up for Global Citizens album

Global Citizen and Ben Lovett of Communion Music have announced Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons, The National and Kanye West will participate in Metamorphoses. The 12 track collaborative album, to be released in fall 2016, will turn words and stories crowd-sourced from music fans and activists into songs recorded by the participating artists. Through March 31st, activists everywhere are invited to take part in this historic project by submitting words and stories at GlobalCitizen.org/Metamorphoses. Lovett and the participating artists will curate the most poignant, powerful entries and incorporate them into original songs for this unique 12 track album.

Metamorphoses was conceptualized by Lovett and Global Citizen Co-Founder and CEO Hugh Evans as a timeless artwork to magnify the movement of global citizens committed to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. Global Citizen is an online advocacy organization committed to supporting the Sustainable Development Goals to end extreme poverty, fight climate change and tackle injustice. The online community connects its seven million users to in-depth content and actions; in 2015 alone global citizens took over 2 million actions, set to affect the lives of over 92 million people around the world.

“We are very excited to explore the creative possibilities of the Metamorphoses project, setting the words of others to music and bringing communities together to fight poverty,” said Aaron Dessner of The National. “Global Citizen is doing very important, pro-social work and we are honored to be able to contribute to it.”

“Metamorphoses has the potential to break down our preconceptions of the voices of creativity, what different people around the world are thinking and who has the right to be heard. In my own life, I’ve experienced people trying to define me and put me in boxes and categories. Through collaboration we can show people how those lines can be blurred and are ultimately redundant,” said Ben Lovett of Communion Music and Mumford & Sons.

“The artists involved in this project are some of the most genuine artists the world has to offer. Artists like Kanye West, and The National are doing something globally important that is touching people down to their DNA. And these masterfully creative people are going to be interpreting incredible submissions from people across the globe. It has been a joy reading all of the submissions we received over the past six months. I’m truly excited to see what we will create together.”

Lovett has been a longtime supporter of Global Citizen both personally and through Communion Music, the artist-run music organization he co-founded in 2006. Built on the belief that music can inspire action, Metamorphoses will engage individuals worldwide throughout the album’s creative process, from song development to the distribution of the album, to hold world leaders accountable to the progress they have made toward eradicating extreme poverty.

“We are so excited that Ellie Goulding, Mumford & Sons, The National and Kanye West are standing with millions of Global Citizens around the world in the fight to end extreme poverty by 2030,” said Hugh Evans, co-founder of Global Citizen and an executive producer of the album. “We’ve crowd-sourced the lyrics from every corner of the world, making Metamorphoses a truly global tribute to our collective responsibility to tackle these issues not just as individuals, but as a movement of Global Citizens.”

Metamorphoses is the newest initiative of Global Citizen, an innovative online platform where music fans and activists can engage in the issues affecting extreme poverty, earning points for each action they take, from sharing a video on social media to signing a petition. Through the annual Global Citizen Festival and Global Citizen’s Two Tickets Initiative, Global Citizen offers fans the chance to earn their way into events by taking actions to help the world’s poor.

Additional artists and the album release date will be announced later this year.

Author: Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites.